1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate, in general, to data collection, processing, and dissemination in a wireless network and more particularly to tracking and monitoring of a web based Smart Sensor network.
2. Relevant Background
Wireless sensor networks consisting of large numbers of inexpensive and energy-constrained devices are an emerging area of networking research. Wireless sensor networks are expected to find a wide range of applications including target tracking, habitat monitoring, and disaster relief. Applications typically involve sensing in harsh and inhospitable terrains; wireless sensor networks can consist of large numbers of wireless devices, each capable to some degree of sensing, processing, and communicating. Together, the wireless devices self-configure into a network without any existing infrastructure, and cooperatively sense, process, and disseminate information to a user of the network.
Despite the versatility of such a self-configuring wireless network, data collected by the wireless sensors cannot be easily accessed. Protocol and bandwidth limitations make the retrieval of data an arduous task. A common web server as would be known to one skilled in the art is too large to reside embedded in a wireless sensor network. Such networks are characterized by limited memory and low computational performance. Thus, while wireless sensing networks offer a great deal of potential, much of their advantages have yet to be realized.
Moreover, messages relayed through a wireless sensor network are generally not reliable and they possess latencies which often discount the value of the information contained within the message.
Most prior art wireless network systems utilize a proprietary software based network tracking and monitoring system. Such a system requires each user to install complex application software at each local drive in order to access sensor activity and sensor data. Due to the diversity of operating systems, computers, and communication protocols, the development of a proprietary based system limits its applicability and results in multiple versions of software. This multiplicity of proprietary software increases the cost of the product and makes its implementation inconvenient. It also limits a user's ability to access sensor data as data access can only occur using a particular hardware resource or platform.
In addition, the evolution of a proprietary based sensor system has led to proprietary communication protocols between the Smart Sensor network and the user software. This, too, leads to less efficient messaging that is incapable of providing any sort of real-time messaging. A need therefore exists to readily access sensor data which is both reliable and real-time based. These and other deficiencies of the prior art are addressed by one or more embodiments of the present invention.